


Perpetual Pain in the Ass

by ladyinprocessing



Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Growing Up Together, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jori - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-01 03:49:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16277243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyinprocessing/pseuds/ladyinprocessing
Summary: Tori and Jade grow up together.orJade can't seem to get rid of Tori.





	Perpetual Pain in the Ass

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there!
> 
> Before you read this, I wanted to say a few things. Firstly, I'm not entirely sure what this is, because it's based on a fever dream and was written in one sitting. Secondly, I totally stole the eighteen-year-old scene from a bade fanfiction I orphaned, in case that looks familiar. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this!

They’re four years old.

 

Its Tori’s first day at preschool, and she has never in her life been more excited. She has watched her older sister Trina get ready for school every day for the last year with such envy that she would cry until her mother would line up her dolls and play teacher with her. But, now, today, is her turn. It’s her turn to do it. She’s so excited to make new friends and make her parents pictures and learn how to use the monkey bars properly and stop her cousins from teasing her for being a baby.

So, she walks into the vibrant classroom, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, waiting to make her first friend. Her teacher, Mrs Abernathy, comes and greets her and asks her to sit next to one of the other girls in her class. Her name is Jadelyn and she looks a little bit sad. Maybe it’s because no one has sat next to her yet. So, Tori squeezes her mom one last time and runs over to the little girl. She had brown hair, just like Tori, but it’s in neat ringlets instead of the lopsided pigtails that the other girl wears. She is also wearing a white peter-pan collared blouse and a navy pinafore. Tori is wearing her favourite yellow shirt with her new overalls that she got for starting school. They’re so different already.

“Hi, Jadelyn! I’m Tori!” the young girl says as she sits down on one of the multicoloured chairs.

“Don’t call me that,” Jadelyn snaps, pouting slightly. Well, that was not the reaction Tori was bargaining for.

“But that’s your name!”

“My _name_ is Jade,” Jade says pointedly. Her blue eyes are wide, but it looks like out of fear rather than curiosity like the other children. Tori gets it, it is a little scary.

“Okay, _Jade._ I’m Tori!”

The well-dressed little girl narrowed her eyes at Tori, trying to figure out if she liked her or not. She decided quickly that she did and stuck out on of her chubby hands to shake the other’s. It was a curt, strong handshake that had definitely been practised. There was no way that a four-year-old naturally shook other toddler’s hands.

Jade is funny, in many ways. She’s funny in the way that she tells jokes and tells the boys that they smell weird. But, she’s also funny in the way that she only really talks to Tori and spends a lot of time sitting on her own, under the slide, at recess. Tori doesn’t mind, though. Jade is her friend and she stops the boys from making fun of her. She likes Jade, even when she tells her that she’s a weirdo.

 

They’re seven years old.

 

Tori and Jade sit cross-legged in assembly, singing the Christian hymns like they always did after they said after the pledge of allegiance. Tori didn’t know what it meant. Jade told her it was something about not being a bad guy. Jade had the best singing voice. She sang He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand like it was second nature.  She sang everything like it was second nature. She sang all the time. Everything from some band that her dad liked to songs from The Little Mermaid. It was always beautiful, anyway.

“Jadey, can you sing to me?” Tori would say every so often, when they would have sleepovers. Jade would always sing whatever Tori would want her to, but this time was different.

“No,” she said plainly, returning her attention back to The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was mid-March, but it was their favourite movie, so they watched it, regardless of how seasonally inappropriate it was.

“Why not?” the other girl asked, almost offended, Jade always sang for her.

“I don’t want to, and I don’t do things that I don’t want to do.” Never had a statement been truer. Jade West did not do anything unless it was of her own accord.

Tori didn’t push it. She had been a little angsty lately, and she didn’t want to be on the wrong end of that. Jade protected her from everyone else being mean, it would be stupid for her to be. Jade didn’t talk much about her family, or about anything, really. But, Tori could tell that the fact that she was going to be an older sister soon was not sitting with her well.

“You wanna talk about it?” the nicer of the two asked, scooting closer to her friend and wrapping her arms around her.

Jade shrugged her off and gave her a look of disgust, “no. Never.”

“You can tell me anything, I’m your best friend.”

“No, you’re a pain in my butt.” She said it deadpan, but there was a slight tug at her lips as she watched her friend giggle.

 

They’re nine years old.

One of the boys that aren’t mean in her class, Jamie, once asks why the two are friends. They’re opposites. Tori is nice and wears bright colours and likes to play with the other kids. Jade is mean to nearly everyone (nearly because she likes Tori) and only wears the weird preppy outfits that her dad makes her wear and would rather sulk under the slide than talk to anyone. Tori gets it. The other kids aren’t very nice to her. If she was Jade, she wouldn’t play with them either. Jade lashes out at this, unnecessarily offended by the boy’s words. His friends laugh at her and call her a freak.

This is when all hell breaks loose, Jade starts screaming at them and tries to attack them, but their teacher comes in and whisks her away before anything major happens. She rolls her eyes when she is told off for her behaviour. She spends a lot of time in time out, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She doesn’t really get along with the other kids. Tori hears their teacher and a classroom assistant call her friend a “problem child” and “an antisocial misfit”. Tori doesn’t like them much after that.

“Do you think I’m mean?” Jade asks one recess. They’re sitting under the monkey bars, looking through their impressive stacks of Pokémon cards to trade with the boys in the grade above them.

“Sometimes. But only when the person deserves it,” Tori replies wisely, flashing her friend a wide smile. She rarely did this anymore because half of her teeth were missing. She would always smile for Jade, though.

Jade does not return the smile, sorting through her fire types as she speaks her next words, “daddy says I’m mean. I think momma agrees with him.”

“No, she doesn’t, you’re the nicest person I know, Jade,” the other little girl says sincerely, giving her friend a side hug.

“I yelled at Jasper for scribbling on my social studies homework yesterday. My dad said I was … He called me a b- … a bad word.”

Tori wished that she could be surprised at this. George West was a cruel, cold man who cared little for anything that wasn’t his job. He was terrible in the parenting and affection front and had no problem talking to his young children like they were work colleagues.

“It’s okay, you were angry. Plus, I yell at Trina all the time,” she says encouragingly, noting the film of tears that have developed in Jade’s eyes.

“That’s different. Trina isn’t a baby.”

The conversation died after that. Jade shot down any attempts of getting it going again until the bell rang to signal they had to get back to class. They two of them walk to fourth period math together silently. It is tense and uncomfortable, which is strange. They hadn’t fought or argued. Tori just doesn’t know what to say to Jade.

“Sorry for being a pain in the butt earlier. I don’t know what happened there,” Jade says with an awkward laugh when they are leaving school at the end of the day.

“It’s okay, you’re my pain in the butt.”

 

They’re twelve years old.

 

Their middle school is putting on a production of Wicked for their school play this year and Jade has never been more excited about anything in her life. She is adamant on playing Elphaba, which is probably unlikely as they are only in sixth grade and most of the lead roles will go to the eighth graders. Tori doesn’t know how to tell her that, though. So, she just lets her talk about it until she turns blue.

“Are you going to audition for it?” Jade asks one day when they’re sitting on her bed, watching The Corpse Bride.

“No, I don’t think so. You know I’m not good at that kind of thing,” Tori says, because she isn’t. She’s a decent enough singer but she can’t act. She can barely lie to the nurse about feeling sick to get out of an algebra test; how is she supposed to pretend to be an entirely different person?

“Come on! You’re a great singer and acting isn’t that hard!” the other girl insists with a devilish grin.

“I didn’t even get to be in the chorus of the play we did last year. I think I’ll skip this one out.”

“Will you come see me in it if I get the part?”

Of course, she will. Tori is Jade’s best friend a vice versa. She wouldn’t miss it for the world, just like Jade wouldn’t miss Tori winning spelling bees for the world, “yes, obviously. Who do you take me for?”

Jade gets the part of Elphaba, of course she does. She’s so incredibly talented that it was have been disrespectful to the art of theatre not to. And she does amazingly, she hits every high note like it’s nothing and sails through the dialogue. She does so amazingly that she gets an audition for some performing arts school form a scout that watched the play.

Jade’s parents don’t want her to go, Tori doesn’t want her to go. But, she wouldn’t dare get in the way of her best friend’s dreams so that they could sit together in English. Jade auditions for the school and gets accepted, she starts the following semester.

They keep in touch for the first few months, but contact gets less and less frequent. They have conflicting schedules, Jade has plays and performances and odd school functions. Tori has science fairs and debate tournaments and her grades to look after. They don’t talk anymore and it’s a pain in the ass.

 

They’re sixteen years old.

 

By some divine miracle, Tori gets accepted to Hollywood Arts. It’s a complete fluke. Trina was supposed to perform, but she had a severe allergic reaction and can’t sing. So, Tori filled in for her and apparently did well. She was offered a place immediately after and transferred from her old school the following Monday. Everything up to this point had gone incredibly quickly and it was all hitting her now, as she walks through the front doors of the school for the first time with her sister at her side. She is so nervously excited that she feels like she’s going to be sick. It gets so much worse when she sees people wearing incredible clothes dancing on the stairs, their brightly dyed hair whirling around them as by a boy playing the keyboard accompanies them. This is all too intimidating for Tori right now. Everyone that she has seen so far is crazily talented and she’s just average. She is going to suck here.

She meets a girl Cat within the first few minutes of being there. The redhead says that she loved Tori’s performance at the concert and that they have the same first period class, so they can walk there together. Cat is nice, and it is very much helpful that they’ve made friends so quickly. When they enter the classroom, Tori looks around the walls, which are adorned with beautiful theatrical masks and stills from Shakespeare plays. She turns around to put her bag next to Cat when she bumps into the most attractive boy she has ever lay eyes on. Unfortunately, though, she spills his coffee all over his white t-shirt. This is the exact opposite of an ideal way to start her first day at a new school. She starts scrubbing at the stain, desperately trying to get it mopped it. Although, she is very much just making it worse, which the boy points out.

“Dude! Why are you rubbing my boyfriend?” a voice barks from behind the boy (she later learns that his name is Beck). She could recognise those dulcet tones anywhere.

“West?” Tori says, poking her head out from behind Beck, a smile breaking her face.

Jade is standing with her arms crossed over her chest, but the once aggravated expression melts to form a wide grin, “oh my god, Vega?” She looks different. She’s not longer four feet eleven and awkward looking. She is tall and so beautiful. There are pink, blonde and blue streaks in her brown hair. She has swapped her previously preppy uniform like clothes for a wardrobe of nearly all black and there were piercing in her left eyebrow and in her nose. Tori thinks she even saw a glimpse of a tattoo poking out from her rolled up sleeve. She looked nothing like the Jade she used to be best friends with.

Within seconds, the two are enveloped in the tightest hug either of them could muster. They’re swaying slightly as they squeeze one another, feeling so at home in each other’s arms. It was like they hadn’t taken a four year long break from the friendship.

“I missed you. So, so much,” Jade says once they’d released each other, “I thought I was never going to see you again.”

Tori still has that ridiculous grin on her face and nods, “me too. Maybe I’d see you on Broadway or something, but not like this. God, it’s good to see you again.”

“Jade, care to tell us who this is?” their teacher, Sikowitz asks, standing in the middle of the stage, barefoot and looking utterly bewildered.

“This, Sikowitz, is my best friend Tori Vega,” Jade exhales happily.

 

They’re eighteen years old.

 

If Tori knows one thing about Jade West, it’s that she doesn’t cry. And that is why the now raven-haired girl appears at the front door of her house at eleven thirty at night, there is something wrong. This is worse than the time her and Beck broke up (all the times, really) and the time she so desperately wanted to be on the Brain Squeezers team. This is so much worse. Jade is wearing her bright purple pyjamas that she reserves solely for binge eating ice cream and watching The Notebook and Titanic on repeat with Tori. She’s also crying uncontrollably. This is the worst state that Tori has ever seen her in, and it’s really worrying her.

Suddenly, the paler of the two practically threw herself at her best friend, her sobs getting more violent as she buried her face in the other girl’s shoulder. Tori wraps her arms around Jade in confusion, closing the door before guiding them to one of the couches.

“Jadey, baby, are you okay?” Tori asks, rubbing the goth’s back in an attempt to soothe her.

Jade inhales sharply at the nickname, but ignores it otherwise. She pulls away from their embrace and wipes the mascara that is pooling under her eyes, “no. I have never been less okay!” she wails. Her voice cracks even before she’s finished the sentence.

“Can you tell me what’s wrong?” the tanned teenager asks, knitting her neatly plucked brows together, thousands of possibilities to why Jade is this hysterical running through her head.

The other girl opens her mouth to speak, but shuts it again quickly. A small noise escapes her throat as she kills the words she was about to say. She starts crying harder and is now gasping for air as she tries to wipe the tears once again with the sleeve of the light jacket she’s wearing over her jammies.

“Take all the time you need. You can tell me whenever you’re ready to. No need to rush,” the brunette smiles sympathetically as she made eye contact with Jade. She did not say anything, but reaches into the pocket of her jacket and pulls something out of it. She looks at it briefly before handing it to the Latina, “Jade, is this what I think it is?”

Jade nods sadly, but her tears were starting to subside. She sighs deeply as she looks back at her best friend, looking so disappointed in herself that it breaks Tori’s heart.

“I’m pregnant,” the blue-eyed teenager says shakily, taking the test back and shoving it deliberately back into her pocket, “Tor, I don’t know what to do.”

Okay, this is bad. Of course, babies are great, and Tori loves them, but Beck and Jade cannot afford to be having a baby right now. Both financially and career-wise. They’re eighteen years old with no disposable income and they’re about to move across the country. Both had gotten into school in New York and Jade was supposed to be in a Broadway production that started in January. There was no way she would be able to be doing that when she was heavily pregnant or with a new born.

“Is this the only test you took?” are the first words that come out of Tori’s mouth upon hearing the news. She doesn’t know where they come from or why she even said them.

“No. I’m not an idiot. I took a few and all of them were positive, Vega! There is a goddamn baby growing inside of me!” Jade is frustrated, which is completely understandable. She just found out that she is with child and she has absolutely no idea what to do.

“Okay, okay. No need to get snappy. Alright, have you mentioned this at all to Beck? I’m assuming he’s the father, and he’s going to notice pretty quickly that you’re not drinking coffee and that you’re finally showing emotions,” Tori says cheekily. It wasn’t meant to be mean (which it kind of came off as), but it was supposed to get her friend to actually think about things. It, of course, works.

“Of course, I haven’t told Beck! I took the tests and came here immediately. I don’t even want to think about how he would react,” the raven-haired girl scoffed, but looked utterly terrified. It was as if she hadn’t even thought of her boyfriend until now.

“Well, you need to stop being a pain in the ass and tell him!”

 

They’re twenty-one years old.

 

Tori has gone to visit Jade at Julliard. Despite having a two-and-a-half-year-old son, Beck and she are managing to still be together and go to separate colleges. It could not be easy, but they’re making it work. Milo is with his father so that the girls could have fun without having to worry about him too much. It had been so long since that had gotten to do this.

They’re doing what they always do – watching terrible horror movies and getting slightly drunk off wine. Except that they were a little more than drunk, an appropriate word would be wasted. They’re one hundred per cent lightweights, only having drank a bottle of Pino each.

Jade’s funny when she’s drunk. She gets giggly and wants to be everyone’s friend and cracks jokes like she’s on Seinfeld. Tori, on the other hand, gets super sentimental and tells everyone how much she loves them, no matter who they are, and usually ends up crying to a Taylor Swift song by the end of the night.

Now, they’re shouting at each other how they love the other more, which has been going on for a good forty-five minutes and it is a wonder that no one has banged on the door of the dorm to complain. Although, it’s probably better than the incessant screaming of a baby that the neighbours are used to.

“No! I love _you_ more! Don’t be an idiot, Vega. I love you so much more than you love me. I’m a momma, so I know that I do,” Jade mused, a playful expression on her face as she attempts to put another fry in her mouth.

“Prove it, asshole!” Tori laughs, throwing one of her arms over her best friend’s shoulder.

They’re definitely drunk. There is no way that either of them would have done what they did if they were sober. They definitely wouldn’t have ended up kissing, making out if they were being honest, and then resume watching whatever Quentin Tarantino movie they had on. They were too intoxicated to notice.

The next morning doesn’t seem to be awkward because blatantly doesn’t remember what happened last night. Tori wishes she could forget.

 

They’re twenty-four years old.

 

Tori is supposed to be babysitting Milo while Jade and Beck are at a meeting. She doesn’t mind at all, she loves that little boy with everything she has. He may be the spitting image of his mother, but he had the absolutely ideal personality of his father and it was just so easy to look after him.

The mother and son arrive at Tori’s apartment a few minutes earlier than planned. Jade looks flustered as she absentmindedly fixes Milo’s hair, “Tor, can I talk to you about something?”

“Yeah, of course. Milo, the remote is on the TV table,” Tori replies with a smile.

As the mother walks into the kitchen, it becomes obvious what she wants to talk about. There is a huge rock on her wedding finger. Beck must have finally proposed.

“You’re engaged!” the brunette gasps excitedly, picking up her best friend’s hand to admire the beautiful diamond.

“Yes. Beck asked me last night after the premiere. I’ll tell you the full story later. I have something else to tell you,” Jade says, a small smile on her face and a hand resting on her stomach.

“What is it?”

“We’re having another baby!”

Tori’s heart somehow swells and breaks at the same time. Of course, she’s happy for Jade. She’s her best friend of twenty years, after all. But, for some ungodly reason, that drunken kiss they had three years ago is as fresh in Tori’s mind as it was when it happened. She didn’t know why, but she wasn’t sure that she liked it.

“Oh my god! Congratulations!” she pulls her friend into a tight hug, her body aching for Jade’s touch, “I’m going to be an auntie again!”

“We told Milo a couple of days ago and it’s all he’s been talking about. I wanted to tell you myself.”

Jade left a few moments later after kissing her son on the head and making sure that Tori was okay to take him. Of course, she was. She would do anything for her pain in the ass of a best friend.

 

They’re twenty-eight years old.

 

“So, you dating anyone yet? Any guys you need to tell me of?” Jade asks, her two-year-old daughter, Rosie on her hip. They were at their high school reunion. It was strange seeing everyone again. Apart from Beck and Jade, Tori hadn’t stayed in touch with anyone. She’d seen Cat selling out stadiums for her concerts in seconds and Andre winning five Grammys in one night and Robbie host SNL so many times that everyone had lost count. But, they never really got to talk to them since graduation. Now, she got to tell them about her job at Home Depot while she waits impatiently for her music career to pick up. She gets to listen to Beck and Jade talk about their perfect little family and how they have so many Oscars and Emmys and how they’re America’s dream couple.

“Nope. I don’t really think you will be either,” Tori replies, glaring bitterly at all her now famous ex-classmates.

“And why is that?” Jade asks, sounding genuinely intrigued. She was waving at one of the many, many girls that had drooled over her now husband while they were in school, a smug smirk on her lips.

“Not really into guys, I guess.”

“What!” the former goth nearly drops her daughter in shock, “you think that our high school reunion is the right place to tell me that?”

“Better than your college dorm when you just kissed me.”

“God, you’re a pain in my ass!”

 

They’re thirty years old.

 

Beck and Jade are getting a divorce. It’s completely mutual; there was no cheating or animosity. It just wasn’t working anymore. Their children were far from happy about it, though. What eleven and four-year olds are happy that their parents aren’t in love anymore?

Jade and Rosie stayed with Tori for a few days while things calmed down. The marriage had ended with a huge, explosive fight (the reason for which, Jade had not disclosed), but they talked it over afterwards and they decided that it wasn’t healthy for them to be together anymore.

“Thanks for having us. I’m so sorry that we had to crash like this,” Jade apologises profusely as they left Tori’s house to their new one.

“You were delightful house guests. Don’t be worrying about. You know you can come to me for anything,” Tori says, those lingering feelings for her best friend flaring up like allergies.

“I know.”

 

They’re thirty-one years old.

 

The divorce has been finalised. And, this time they’re not drunk.

They’re completely sober when Jade crashes her lips upon Tori’s. It’s not like the time before, ten years ago. That kiss was sloppy and messy and just all wrong. This kiss is perfect. It has the perfect amount of push and pull and gentleness and harshness. The only thing wrong with this kiss is how goddamn long it took for it to happen.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” Jade says breathlessly, utterly enhanced by the fire in Tori’s brown eyes.

“Oh, I do,” Tori replies, pulling her in for another.

For once, neither of them were being a pain in the ass.

                                                            


End file.
